Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton lashes out at Ferrari after British Grand Prix

Four-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton has lashed out at Ferrari following the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton took the pole position for the 10th race of the 21-race 2018 Formula 1 season, the British Grand Prix, but he did not stay there for long after the lights went out and the 52-lap race got underway.

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel passed Hamilton for the race lead shortly after it began, and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas proceeded to pass Hamilton for second place. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen then made a move to try to get around Hamilton for third.

In doing so, Raikkonen’s Ferrari made contact with Hamilton’s Mercedes, which sent Hamilton’s car spinning in front of the crowd in his home race. As a result, he was forced back to 18th place with a car that he continued to state had more damage than his team were telling him that it had.

Here is a video of this incident.

Raikkonen was given a 10-second penalty as a result of causing this collision, and he served this penalty in the pits. Thanks to two safety car periods and a tire strategy that panned out, Hamilton ended up rallying to finished the race in second place just 2.264 seconds behind Vettel. Raikkonen finished in third.

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However, even though he finished exactly where he likely would have finished had Raikkonen not spun him out on the first lap of the race around the 18-turn, 3.661-mile (5.891-kilometer) Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone (part Northamptonshire and part Buckinghamshire), England, United Kingdom, Hamilton was none too pleased with the Maranello-based organization.

When Raikkonen spun Hamilton out on the first lap of the race, Raikkonen became the second Ferrari driver in the last three races to spin out a Mercedes driver on the first lap of a race, as Vettel spun out Bottas heading into the first turn of the first lap of the French Grand Prix just over two weeks ago after the two drivers started in third and second place, respectively. The cars of both drivers were damaged, but Vettel rallied to finish in fifth while Bottas was only able to climb back up to seventh.

This got Hamilton thinking, and as a result, he subtly next not-so-subtly insinuated that the recent incidents caused by the Ferrari drivers may have been orchestrated. Here is what he had to say about the matter, according to ESPN.

"“This is the greatest crowd in the world, and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to bring it home for them. I’ll never give up. The team did a great job this weekend and there’s been a lot of pressure on for us all. Interesting tactics I would say from their side but we will do what we can to fight them in the next.“All I’ll say there’s now two races the Ferraris have taken out one of the Mercedes. A five-second penalty [for Vettel in France] and a 10-second penalty doesn’t feel…It is a lot of points Valtteri and I have lost in those incidents. Obviously it’s a racing incident and I can’t see behind me. We need to position ourselves better so we’re not exposed to the red cars because who knows where they are going to be.”"

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Was Lewis Hamilton right to lash out at Ferrari and insinuate that the recent incidents that their drivers have caused may have been executed on purpose, or did he overreact to the situation involving himself and Kimi Raikkonen?

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